Arachnomorpha is a proposed subdivision or

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English ter ...

Arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chiti ...

a, comprising the group formed by the

trilobites Trilobites (; meaning "three lobes") are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the A ...

and their close relatives (

Artiopoda The Artiopoda is a grouping of extinct arthropods that includes trilobites and their close relatives. It was erected by Hou and Bergström in 1997 to encompass a wide diversity of arthropods that would traditionally have been assigned to the Tril ...

), Megacheira (which may be

paraphyletic In taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In ...

) and chelicerates. Under this proposed classification scheme, Arachnomorpha is considered the sister group to

Mandibulata Mandibulata, termed "mandibulates", is a clade of arthropods that comprises the extant subphyla Myriapoda (millipedes and others), Crustacea and Hexapoda (insects and others). Mandibulata is currently believed to be the sister group of the clade ...

(including insects,

crustaceans Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean g ...

and myriapods). The arachnomorph concept has been challenged by suggestions that the artiopods are more closely related to mandibulates, forming the clade Antennulata instead. There is no consensus as to assigning Arachnomorpha a formal Linnean rank.

Classification

Arachnomorpha Lameere, 1890 Arachnata Paulus, 1979, = Palaeopoda Packard, 1903*†

Trilobita Trilobites (; meaning "three lobes") are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the At ...

Walch, 1771 *† Megacheira Hou & Bergstrom, 1997 *† Strabopida Hou & Bergström, 1997 *†

Aglaspida Aglaspidida is an extinct order of aquatic arthropods that were once regarded as primitive chelicerates. However, anatomical comparisons demonstrate that the aglaspidids cannot be accommodated within the chelicerates, and that they lie instead w ...

Walcott, 1911 *† Cheloniellida Broili, 1932 *

Chelicerata The subphylum Chelicerata (from New Latin, , ) constitutes one of the major subdivisions of the phylum Arthropoda. It contains the sea spiders, horseshoe crabs, and arachnids (including harvestmen, scorpions, spiders, solifuges, ticks, and mite ...

Heymons 1901 **Family † Sanctacarididae Legg & Pates, 2017 **Class Pycnogonida Latreille, 1810 **Clade Euchelicerata Weygoldt & Paulus, 1979 ***Genus † Offacolidae Sutton ''et al''., 2002 ***Clade Prosomapoda Lamsdell, 2013

Phylogeny

Using fossil data, Bergström & Hou (2003) gave an outline of arthropod relationships emphasizing trilobitomorphs (a group that includes trilobites and trilobite-like animals).

References

Arthropod taxonomy Taxa named by Auguste Lameere {{arthropod-stub